King's 1965 speech challenged audience to embrace desegregation

Contact: Kristin K. Anderson, University Relations, (517) 353-8819, ander284@msu.edu

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Feb. 11, 1965 speech at MSU was an effort to help defray the costs of the Student Tutorial Education Project.

In his speech at the MSU Auditorium he issued three challenges to the audience that must be met for people to survive: People must achieve a world brotherhood perspective, the notion of superior and inferior races must be abolished, and massive action programs must be developed to rid the world of segregation.

King also called for new civil rights legislation to aid in the dissolution of discrimination problems in the South. He made particular reference to the Civil Rights Commission and MSU President John A. Hannah, who was appointed chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission in January 1957 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and served until September 1969.

To permanently recognize King, MSU planted and dedicated a tree near the Student Services Building. A bust of Dr. King, donated by the Wonders Hall Black Caucus, was mounted in the lobby of the Student Services Building.

"Since the 1980s, when the Committee Commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was founded by graduate student Eugene Henderson, MSU has continued to recognize King's accomplishments and achievements, and continue King's dreams," said Paulette Granberry Russell, special adviser to the president for diversity and director of the Office of Affirmative Action Compliance and Monitoring at MSU.

In 1996-97 the committee established a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fund; contributions may be made through the Office of Racial/Ethnic Student Affairs.

Past speakers at the annual convocation ceremonies have included Martin Luther King III; Ernest Green, an MSU alumnus and member of the "Little Rock Nine"; Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and MSU faculty members who worked closely with King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or other facets of the civil rights movement.

In February 1998 the MSU Board of Trustees approved a recommendation that the university honor King on the day set aside as a national holiday in a manner that reflected the King legacy for all people. Beginning in January 1999, scheduled classes have been cancelled for that day.